Slick cities: London and New York top luxury poll

Problemes de riche, they call them in France, or first-world problems, as they’re better known locally. Now Christie’s has devoted an entire index to ranking and measuring the luxury property market.

It turns out a lack of supply of properties set against strong international demand is pushing luxury properties to new highs. London and New York have recently posted record highs for properties of £75 million and $88 million respectively, setting these two cities at the top of the luxury property index.

The Christie’s International report, entitled Luxury Defined: An Insight into the Luxury Residential Property Market, compares 10 of the world’s top property markets. The index, which Christie’s is calling the first “true global indicator for luxury residential real estate”, ranks markets across metrics such as record sales price, prices per square foot, percentage of non-local and international purchasers, and the number of luxury listings relative to population.

The index rates cities out of a scale of zero to 100. London ranked top, at 78, followed by New York at 68 and Cote d’Azur at 61. Hong Kong ranked fourth at 59, followed by Paris at 58, Los Angeles at 54, San Francisco at 53, Miami at 52, Toronto at 51 and Dallas at 32.

Dublin didn’t quite make the cut this time around. Oh well, there’s always next year.